The present invention relates to advertising commercial products and services and, in particular, to collecting consumer information.
Commercial products and services are advertised in many different communication media. Traditionally, advertisements are placed in newspapers, displayed in public places or on billboards, broadcasted through television or radio, or mailed directly to the potential consumers. Recently, more and more advertisements are delivered in electronic media, such as the Internet. For example, advertisements are displayed at different web sites or transmitted in electronic messages, such as e-mails.
Advertisements are often combined with promotions. These promotions can include a reduced price for the advertised product or service; or a promotional item can be offered free of charge or at a reduced price if the consumer buys or orders the advertised product or service. The promotional item may or may not be related to the advertised product or service. The related promotional item can include an item that the consumer will likely use if he or she purchases the advertised product or service; the unrelated promotional item can include a small present that may be desirable to consumers in general.
A known method of advertisement is direct response marketing. Direct response marketing uses advertisements that ask the consumers to respond directly to the advertisers. For example, the direct response advertisement can include an addressed response card that the consumer can send through regular mail to the advertiser to order products or services, such as magazine subscriptions. Other direct response advertisements include a phone number or an internet link that the consumer can use to order the advertised products or services. Direct response advertisements are often delivered to the consumers by regular mail. Thus, the advertiser needs to know the addresses of the qualified prospective consumers. The advertiser may have its own list of such prospective consumers, or it can by the list from a specialized service.